Anyone care to hazard a guess?

I contacted the NC Department of Justice again and asked a few more questions. One of the questions was, “could you send me the data from before 1986?” They were kind enough to send me what they had, which was the computed murder rates since 1973.

I took that rate data and plotted it. Here is the murder rate per 100,000 people in North Carolina since 1973.

I have included a murder rate trend line.

Would anyone like to hazard a guess about what happened in North Carolina between 1988 and 1994?

I’ll give you a hint. It was not the easy availability of guns. Nor was it “Assault Weapons™” nor concealed carry, and not even a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

What is VERY surprising to me is the very high murder rate pre-1980. I knew that the rate was high in the late ’80s and early ’90s. I just assumed that it was lower back in the early ’70s